From temple to home
celebrating Ganesha

Supported by

Asahi Shimbun

Recommend this exhibition

Explore the iconography of a beautiful
13th-century sculpture of the elephant-headed god Ganesha and find
out how he is celebrated across India.

The elephant-headed Ganesha is one of the most popular Hindu
gods – the creator and remover of obstacles. The main stone
sculpture in the display was carved from schist around 800 years
ago and was originally positioned on the outside of a temple in the
eastern state of Orissa (recently renamed Odisha). The display
brings this sculpture together with other more recent depictions of
Ganesha created for different purposes. Among these are the
temporary statues created every year for the Ganeshchaturthi
festival in Mumbai, which are placed in public or domestic shrines
before being immersed in water at the end of the celebrations.

The display is curated by Manisha Nene of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya
(CSMVS) in Mumbai, who participated in the British Museum’s
International Training Programme (ITP)
in 2011. The ITP promotes the mutual sharing of knowledge, skills
and experience as museum and heritage professionals from across the
world are hosted by the British Museum and UK partner museums. As
part of the ITP, Manisha prepared a proposal for a temporary
exhibition about Ganesha, which the Director of the British Museum,
Neil MacGregor, asked her to develop in collaboration with British
Museum curators.

This display explores the imagery and symbolism associated with
Ganesha, puts the worship of the god across South Asia in context,
and retells some of the most popular stories surrounding him.